Bladesmith
Bladesmithing is the art of making
Related trades
Many blade smiths were known by other titles according to the kind of blade that they produced:
- A swordsmith's specialty is making swords.
- A knifemaker makes knives and other cutlery.
- A scythesmith is a smith who makes scythes.
Historic bladesmithing
Historically speaking, bladesmithing is an art that has survived and thrived over thousands of years. Many different parts of the world have different styles of bladesmithing, some more well-known than others.
Egyptian
Ancient Egyptians referred to iron as "copper from the heavens" because their lack of smelting technology limited their accessible iron supplies to what little native iron they could recover from meteorites. Despite iron's rarity, they gained enough familiarity with ironworking techniques to have used wrought iron in the manufacture of swords and blades as early as 3000 BC.[6] They exported this technique to Assyria, Babylon and Greece through trade and as they conquered other lands and were conquered themselves.[6][7]
Celtic
The
Chinese
Traditional Chinese blades (jians) are usually of sanmei (three plate) construction, which involved sandwiching a core of hard steel between two plates of softer steel. The central plate protrudes slightly from its surrounding pieces, allowing for a sharp edge, while the softer spine protects the brittle core. Some blades had wumei or five plate construction, with two more soft plates being used at the central ridge. Bronze jian were often made in a somewhat similar manner: in this case an alloy with a high copper content would be used to make a resilient core and spine, while the edge would be made from a high-tin-content alloy for sharpness and welded onto the rest of the blade.
The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technology that was carried to Korea and Japan, allowing swordsmiths in those places to create such weapons as the katana.[9][10] This technology included folding, inserting alloys, and differential hardening of the edge, which historically has been the most common technique around the world. While the Japanese would be more influenced by the Chinese dāo (single-edged swords of various forms), the early Japanese swords known as ken are often based on the jian. One-sided jians from the Tang dynasty provided the basis for various Japanese forging styles and techniques. The Korean version of the jian is known as the geom or gum, and these swords often preserve features found in Ming-era jian, such as openwork pommels and sharply angled tips.
Korean
Korea has a history of swordsmithing dating back 3,000 years.[citation needed] Although Korea was in close proximity to both Japan and China, no native systems of swordsmanship and swordmaking developed in Korea.[9][11][12]
Korean swords include long swords such as the yeoh do, geom, and hyup do and curved swords such as Samindo.[citation needed] Metal swords of double bladed leaf structure have been found throughout Korea dating back to the Bronze Age. These bronze swords were around 32 cm (13 in) in overall length, with a short handle.[citation needed]
Japanese
The technology that led to the development of the Japanese sword originated in China and was brought to Japan by way of Korea.[9] The oldest steel swords found in Japan date to the fourth or fifth century A.D.[9] Although appearing to be ceremonial in nature, samples of these straight blades preserved in the Shōsōin were hand-forged with hardened cutting edges. By the time of the Heian period (794—1185 AD) the Japanese sword took on its distinctive curved shape as a mounted horseman would have more use for a slashing type of blade as opposed to a thrusting type.[9] These swords were known as tachi.[9]
Due to the quality of metal found in Japan, Japanese bladesmithing became an extremely rigid, precise process, involving folding and forge-welding the steel many times over to create a
The
The
Germanic
The Germanic
Indian
Bladesmithing was common practice in India during the Middle Ages. A special type of steel known as
Spain
Between the 15th and 17th centuries the
Middle East
Modern bladesmithing
Bladesmithing began declining after the Industrial Revolution. With improvements in steel production, bladesmiths no longer had to forge steel and knives could be machined from flat bars of steel.[20] As cutlery companies moved to mass production of blades and machine tools became more available, the art of forging steel began to disappear as knifemakers could grind blades out of existing stock.[20] By the mid 20th century, bladesmithing had been relegated to a cottage industry carried out by a handful of bladesmiths.[21]
One of these bladesmiths was William F. Moran, who forged his knives using a coal forge in the manner of a blacksmith using a hammer and anvil to shape the steel. Moran began trying to revive the ancient process of forging Damascus steel in the late 1960s. However, no living bladesmith knew the exact techniques and without a recipe for the process, it was in danger of being lost; through trial and error he taught himself pattern welding and referred to his end product as "Damascus steel".[22]
In 1972, Moran was elected president of the Knifemakers' Guild. The following year he unveiled his "Damascus knives" at the Guild Show and created a revival of interest in the forged blade, and along with the knives he gave away free booklets detailing how he made them, to encourage other knifemakers to take up the hammer and anvil.[23] In 1976 he founded the American Bladesmith Society (ABS). Despite its name, this was an international group of knife makers dedicated to preserving the forged blade and educating the public about traditional bladesmithing techniques.[24] The handful of traditional bladesmiths in the 1960s rose to several hundred by 2005.[21]
Tools
The basic art and principles of forging a blade has remained similar for thousands of years and the modern bladesmith uses a variety of tools and techniques in order to produce a blade.[5] Forges formerly fed by wood, coke, or coal are still in use, but gas forges are becoming the standard.[5] Likewise the smith's hammer is being eclipsed by the use of hydraulic forging presses and power hammers.[5]
Steel
Modern bladesmiths use a variety of
When forging, the blade material is heated to a high temperature or forging temperature in a forge and shaped with a hammer on an anvil to achieve the desired shape, often to near final dimension, where very little stock removal, if any, is required to finish. Steel can be folded either to form decorative pattern welded steel or to refine raw steel, or as the Japanese call it, tamahagane. Grain size is kept at a minimum as grain growth can happen quite easily if the blade material is overheated.[4]
Damascus steel
Many bladesmiths are able to forge a special type of steel using a technique called pattern welding, producing a metal erroneously referred to as Damascus steel.[29][30][31] Modern pattern-welded steel can be highly decorative as well as durable (if welded in certain ways with proper steels), and is often used in custom knife- and sword-crafting. Bill Moran is said to be the "Father of Modern Damascus Steel".[22][32]
See also
- Sword replica
- Knifesmith
References
- ISBN 0-695-80913-X.
- ISBN 978-0-87364-612-3.
- ISBN 978-1-58160-544-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87364-430-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87341-798-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-486-41743-1.
- ISBN 0-521-45257-0.
- ISBN 978-0-19-813411-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87011-798-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87011-562-2.
- ^ Sugawara, Makoto (1985). Lives of Master Swordsmen. Tokyo, Japan: The East Publications.
- ISBN 0870114360.
- ^ Brower, Robert H. (1972) "Ex-Emperor Go-Toba's Secret Teachings": Go-Toba no in Gokuden. Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 32
- ^ "History of knife making". Sakai Japanese Knives. Sakai Japanese. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
- ISBN 0-87364-732-7.
- ISBN 978-0-85115-716-0.
- ISBN 978-1-84383-089-4.
- ^ Inman, Mason (November 16, 2006). "Legendary Swords' Sharpness, Strength From Nanotubes, Study Says". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on November 18, 2006.
- ^ S. Srinivasan; S. Ranganathan (November 18, 2000). "WOOTZ STEEL: AN ADVANCED MATERIAL OF THE ANCIENT WORLD". Indian Institute of Science, Department of Metallurgy.
- ^ a b Lloyd, Godfrey Isaac Howard (1913). The cutlery trades: an historical essay in the economics of small-scale production. Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 30–32.
- ^ ISBN 0-89689-240-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-87349-417-2.
- ISBN 978-0-89689-470-9.
- ^ Rasmussen, Frederick (2005). "William F. Moran". The Anvil's Ring. 34. Blacksmiths' Association of North America: 15–16.
- ISBN 978-0-87341-389-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4303-2801-8.
- ^ Goddard(2000)page 27.
- ^ Henning, Jim (2001). "The Business and Technology of Heat Treating". Heat Treating Progress: The Official Voice of the ASM Heat Treating Society. 1 (3). Michigan: 22.
- doi:10.5284/1034398.
- JSTOR 1505063.
- JSTOR 1504953.
- ISBN 978-0-87349-129-7.
Further reading
- Erik; Jones, F.D. Oberg. Machinery's Handbook 13th Ed, 1946.
- Legendary Swords' Sharpness, Strength From Nanotubes, Study Says